Drum programming tips?

Jmoki · Post by **Jmoki** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 7:44 pm

Has anyone got any good drum programming tips?

Lately it seems my drums have been letting me down, wanna expand from the typicall boom bap i normally stick to, switch it up a little....

Any advice would be apretiated, thanks...

timfromtexas · Post by **timfromtexas** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:50 pm

listen to music a lot closer than you normally would especially WITH headphones on...

listen to everything in the battles..

study

hurlingdervish · Post by **hurlingdervish** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 10:13 pm

listen to funk, jazz, and drum solos

modulr · Post by **modulr** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 10:29 pm

All the above + play with your timing. Trying playing triplets, add a pause here and there. Don't stick to 4/4. Substitute elements so you can start hearing different patterns. Get off the grid if you are quantizing and just let it flow mistakes and all.

ColeRockLee · Post by **ColeRockLee** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:01 pm

Chop your drum loops sloppy as hell.

Don't forget you can use multiple kicks/snares in the same pattern.

Ghost snares are your friend.

kel · Post by **kel** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:19 am

turn the tempo all the way up and hit the pads randomly, then turn the tempo down and you might get some pattern ideas.

HxC · Post by **HxC** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:20 am

do some HHs that are quantized- then do the kiks & snrs with NO quantize.
Make a 32 bar sequence, then just take the bars that came out good~~!!@#%%^&*(

Spideyjam · Post by **Spideyjam** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:48 pm

That's great stuff!!!!!!!

dman5000 · Post by **dman5000** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:32 am

ive been listening to a lot of dubstep recently the drums are real cool
check out this video of Benga in the studio at about 3 min into it he gets into how he does his drums on fruity loops but when the camera zooms as hebreaks down the layers look at how hes got say a snare on the 2 and 2 other snares on the 16/32 right before and after it... this video was pretty inspiring to me

it cant be embedded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b69DS_id-Y

hurlingdervish · Post by **hurlingdervish** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:26 pm

dman5000 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b69DS_id-Y

benga is sick, i love that song pleasure, but that sample gets annoying ahha god damn fruity stock samples

dman5000 · Post by **dman5000** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:38 pm

its crazy so many producers use fruity loops, you can tweak that shit pretty hard if you get in depth with it.. if i had a pc id like to try bouncing loops from FL to the sp

Les Braun · Post by **Les Braun** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:41 pm

My tip is...start with general hi-hats, then general snares, then some kicks, then add a little of your own flavor.

TIMP · Post by **TIMP** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:01 pm

study records.

sit down with some records you like (doesn't matter the genre),

and just listen to the drums.

hear how each hit interacts with each other,

subtle changes in the pattern throughout the song,

just little things.

then try and take what you've heard/learned and try and apply it to when you do your drums.

Jmoki · Post by **Jmoki** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:27 pm

Thanks guys, some great tips.....
keep posting em....

hurlingdervish · Post by **hurlingdervish** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:34 pm

use math!

1 bar= 16
beat starts on 1 5 9 13
try putting a hit every three so you got

1 4 7 10 13 then theres extra steps before it repeats

so thats 1/8 note plus a 1/16 note repeating or a dotted 1/8 note they call it